DRAGON AMERICA

Reviewed by Steven H Silver

Mike Resnick has published what appears to be the first of a series in which there are dragons living in the United States of America.  The first novel, entitled Dragon America, focuses on how the country became independent of England with the aid of dragons.

Despite the presence of dragons throughout the continent, little appears to have changed up through the Revolutionary War.  Washington is still leading the rebellion against the British, the colonies apparently have the same boundaries and grievances against the crown, John and Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and the Lees are still the driving force behind the revolution, and Congress still doesn't give Washington what he needs to soundly defeat the British troops under Cornwallis.

In this world, however, Washington elects to send his friend, Daniel Boone, to the Shawnee tribe led by Black Fish to seek aid against the British. Black Fish rejects Boone's request, but does claim that there are rumors of enormous dragons to the west, creatures which dwarf the Nightkillers, Landwagons, and Skyraiders of the east.  Resnick's book splits between Boone and his companions, the escaped slave Pompey and the Indian Grey Eagle, on their search for the legendary Thunderflames, and George Washington and Ephram Eakins as they try to figure out how to hold off or defeat the redcoats.

Resnick's Daniel Boone is perhaps the best defined character in the novel, which isn't surprising because he seems to be cut from a template Resnick often uses.  He is a trapper who knows his business and doesn t mind sharing his knowledge with those around him, although he has an arrogance about him, even as he admits that he doesn t know everything.  This is in contrast to the character of Pompey, who seems unsure of everything in a strange environment, even that which he excels.  To Pompey, a whiz with languages, Boone's wilderness skills border on the supernatural and he refuses to believe Boone's commonplace explanations for them.

While Boone and Pompey search for dragons in the West, Washington tries to befuddle the British in the East.  Despite the occurrence of dragons in this version of North America, the beasts do not seem to have had a major affect on the spread of population or the course of history.  However, Washington manages to use the reality of the dragons as well as the British (and American) superstitions about them, to his advantage to prolong the war and give Boone an opportunity to ride to the rescue.  In the process, Washington, showing his own abilities as much as Boone does, acquires an apprentice in Ephram Eakins, in much the way Boone acquired Pompey.

The novel has an interesting premise, and in the last line, Resnick appears to be promising more stories of dragons in America.  While Dragon America didn't really integrate the beasts into the culture and history of the country, it is possible, and hopeful, that in future novels, Resnick will more fully show changes from our own world occasioned by the existence of dragons, in which case, Dragon America will serve as an introduction to an interesting series.

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